Few have forgotten former Virginia Senator George Allen's use of the racial slur 'macaca' to describe a 21-year old Virginia native of Indian descent who was working on the Jim Webb for Senate campaign this summer.
After learning that his family lineage includes Jewish roots, Allen then told a Virginia paper that having Jewish ancestors is "just an interesting nuance to my background." Adding insult to injury, Allen continued, "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."
Then there was Virginia Republican Congressman Virgil Goode and his xenophobic constituent letter. After newly-elected Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison (D), the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, announced that he would use a Koran during a ceremonial swearing-in with family and friends, Virgil Goode found it necessary to talk about Ellison's decision in a letter to one of his constituents about U.S. immigration policy. He wrote:
[I]f American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran...
I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.
Interestingly, the copy of the Koran Ellison ultimately used during the ceremony was once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Now, a senior Virginia Republican state legislator is repeating the charge of deicide - the claim that the Jews killed Jesus. During recent debate on a resolution apologizing to Virginia's black community for the historical existence of slavery in the Commonwealth, Virginia Republican Delegate Frank Hargrove tried to make the case that apologizing is not necessary. He argued:
The present Commonwealth has nothing to do with slavery... Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ... I personally think that our black citizens should get over it... By golly, we're living in 2007. Nobody can justify slavery today, but its counterproductive to dwell on that. Political correctedness has kind of gotten us into this area.
Virginia Delegate David Englin, a Jewish legislator from Northern Virginia, contested Hargrove's remarks. Englin charged Hargrove in spreading dangerous rhetoric and placing the safety of Jews in Virginia - including his 7-year old son - at risk.
As if he hadn't said enough already, the senior Republican Hargrove responded by telling the Jewish legislator, "I think your skin was a little too thin."
NJDC applauds Englin who responded in the Washington Jewish Week and wrote:
While Del. Hargrove's remarks about slavery offended me as a Virginian, his flippant reference to Jews killing Christ disturbed me as a Jew. His subsequent defense - that people who feel as I do are just being 'thin skinned' - exposed a disappointing ignorance of the impact of his words.
In light of their inability to win a big statewide race in the last six years, Virginia Republicans would be wise to heed the lessons of the 2006 elections.
Stay tuned. Something tells me that we haven't heard the last words of intolerance from Virginia Republicans.
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